This past month, a lot of people have been asking me to comment on the rumors swirling around a possible IBM open source initiative for software-defined networking (SDN) called Daylight. And I mean a LOT of people, from the audience at the OFC/NFOEC conference, to the Wall Street banks who attended my talk at the Open Network Exchange in Manhattan, to my fellow networking engineers who participated in the online roundtable from the MPLS/Ethernet World Congress. Since I usually enjoy a good technical discussion, it’s been more than a bit frustrating that I couldn’t respond to these rumors directly before now. Waiting for the official announcement of this initiative was made even harder when I read some of the preliminary online speculation about Daylight that was either misinformed, misguided, or just plain wrong.

In any case, it was a tremendous relief for me when The Linux Foundation (the industry’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to open source development) announced OpenDaylight this morning. So for everyone who’s been waiting along with me, let’s take this opportunity to clear the air about what OpenDaylight actually means for the data networking industry.

As I mentioned in my recent tutorial at OFC/NFOEC, major industry trends such as warehouse scale data centers, big data analytics, and cloud computing in the enterprise are driving companies to revisit their data center network designs. SDN has the potential to lower capital and operating expenses, increase efficiencies, and provide faster time to value in this rapidly changing environment. But in order to fully realize the potential value of SDN, as quickly as possible, we need to go beyond the product line of any one networking company. We need to create a development community that encourages rapid innovation from a broad range of stake holders serving a common goal. In short, we need to do for networking what Linux did for server operating systems.

OpenDaylight is an open source framework intended to accelerate adoption of Software Defined Networking and to create an open, transparent approach to SDN development. Just as the Linux community created a viable open source operating system, which matured until it was deployed on enterprise-class systems and mainframes, OpenDaylight will create programmable SDN abstractions for many different types of data networks. Much of the initial code will be contributed and supported by industry leading companies who have signed up as either Platinum or Gold members of the OpenDaylight project. I feel this is one of the strongest features of the project; OpenDaylight is not owned by any one company, although many industry leaders have committed both developers and funding to the effort. Besides IBM, founding members include BigSwitch Networks, Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Ericsson, Juniper, Microsoft, NEC, Red Hat, and VMWare; other contributors include Arista, Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Nuage, and Plumgrid. I’ve been working with many other IBMers for the past few months, talking with these companies and crafting a common perspective for the SDN open source community. You’ll note that a number of these companies had previously publicly endorsed IBM’s point of view regarding open networking standards (the Open Datacenter Interoperable Network, or ODIN). One of the five initial ODIN volumes deals with SDN and its implications for the data center; by definition, supporting OpenDaylight means supporting open networking standards, so it’s nice to see other companies joining this commitment to interoperable SDN networks.

This project is good news for anyone who’s been trying to implement the recent Gartner Group study, which effectively said that corporations who didn’t pursue a multi-vendor networking strategy were paying 15-25% more than necessary for their network, and thus failing to meet their fiduciary responsibilities. But SDN is about much more than just reducing your network operating expenses; it’s also a driving force for new applications and potentially new revenue streams. As I’ve said in my blog on many occasions, open standards and open source software are an excellent way to foster innovation. By supporting OpenFlow and other standards, OpenDaylight allows a global development community to innovate at the speed of software, just as we’ve seen for smart phones or tablet computers.

The first code from the OpenDaylight Project is expected to be available in 3Q this year, and will include an open controller, virtual overlay network, protocol plug-ins, and switch device enhancements. The code is independent of the network operating system, and is governed by best practices such as the Eclipse Public License (EPL) commonly used for Java. Just as in any open source community, companies are free to participate based on the merit of their contributions. For example, IBM plans to contribute an open source version of its Distributed Overlay Virtual Ethernet (DOVE) technology, which has been working its way through the IETF standards bodies for some time now. DOVE software runs on top of the existing network hardware infrastructure and virtualizes layer 2 and 3 network properties. This makes it possible to set up, manage, and scale virtual networks much faster than ever before. Some possible applications of DOVE include merging multiple data networks together (for example, when one company acquires another) or allowing highly virtualized servers to connect with merchant silicon switches (by abstracting the IP and MAC address tables).

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating…it's a very cool time to be a networking engineer. I’m excited by the potential of OpenDaylight for cloud computing and other applications, and I’m looking forward to working with the global development community on bringing all the benefits of Linux and server virtualization to the data center network.

Still not sure how you feel about open source networking? Now that I can talk freely about OpenDaylight, drop me a line on Twitter @Dr_Casimer

I’m pleased to report that BTI has become the latest company
to publicly endorse the Open Datacenter Interoperable Network (ODIN) approach
to designing data center networks. As regular readers of my blog know, IBM has released
a set of technical briefs describing ODIN, which provides an approach to using
open industry standards to create next generation data center networks.I’ve written, podcasted, and been interviewed
many times about ODIN, all of which is linked from my blog.This approach to using industry standards as
the preferred means to designing data center networks has been endorsed in this post from Chandra Pandey, Vice-President of Platform Solutions at BTI. Many thanks for this support of open
networking standards; I’m sure we’ll have more to say about how to create these
solutions with IBM and BTI technology in the near future.

There’s been so much going on in the world of data networking lately that I hardly know where to begin. It feels like I’ve been living on Internet Time this year (maybe you have, too); it’s hard to believe it’s already most of the way through first quarter. So, while I usually don’t take this approach, I thought that the fastest way to get everyone up to date on all the latest networking news would be to let you pick your favorites from the list of my recent presentations, podcasts, and webinars.

For starters, I recently got back from the Open Network Exchange meeting in New York City, sponsored by Network World magazine in mid-February. I gave a talk on how software-defined networking is being used as part of the ODIN network architecture, including some thoughts on finding a standard definition for SDN (something even Bob Metcalf hasn’t been able to do).
I also spoke about how SDN disrupts existing markets, reviewed IBM’s early client adopters & the benefits they have realized, and offered a few thoughts on what the future holds. You can see my presentation, plus others from the conference, at this site:

Of course, there’s still a lot of debate among different parts of the industry regarding what SDN really means. In particular, the datacom and telecom worlds have surprisingly different perspectives on this issue. I recently participated in a roundtable discussion on this topic, along with representatives from Cisco, Juniper, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, MRV, AT&T, Verizon, Orange, Ericsson, Rad Data Communications, and the ONF; you can listen to the discussion here In the future we plan more of these round table discussions, leading up to the 2013 MPLS/Ethernet World Congress, so keep watching as the debate continues.

I still feel that network virtualization is the next big
thing in our industry, and software-defined networking has become one of the
hottest topics since the creation of Ethernet 25 years ago (if your memory doesn’t
go back that far, read the first chapter in your CCNA qualification guidebook
to see how the world used to be made up of private networks from IBM, DEC,
Xerox, and others).While SDN is almost
certainly over-hyped right now, I believe it’s nearing the peak of the Gartner
Group hype cycle, as evidenced by some early adopters who have found high value
use cases for this technology.To hear
more, listen to my podcast with Lippis Group on SDN enablement of next generation
data centers, recorded December 2012

While you’re on the Lippis Group website, if you still haven’t read my blog or the IBM System Networking website articles about the Open Datacenter Interoperable Network (ODIN), download my podcast on this topic to get up to date on how ODIN is being applied at large data centers worldwide, and how it will continue to reflect changes in the networking community throughout this coming year.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog and Twitter feed, then
you know that I’m passionate about open standards.In fact, if somebody tries to tell you they
have SDN working in their data center today, but it only runs on their
equipment, don’t believe them…SDN only works when it’s part of a larger,
standards-based data center strategy.If
you’d like to read about that larger strategy, and how it relates to big data,
analytics, and other workloads, there’s a nice, short introduction in the new
IBM RedPaper Point of View (PoV) article series.Sponsored in part by the IBM Academy of
Technology, these new Redpapers bring you all the key facts for a quick
tutorial on a subject, and refer you to the much longer Redbooks for a
step-by-step cookbook on how to make them work for you.Redpapers are available on a wide range of
topics; for data networking, start with my PoV on data networking IBM Redbooks PoV publication, #redp-4933-00 ,

Interested in storage area networking, or wondering how the SAN is going to change in the future? I've been working on that question with some of our industry partners, including ODIN-endorser and leading SAN authority Brocade, who have also recently been qualified by IBM for extended distance backup solutions using SAN Volume Controller (SVC). To see how SVC handles long distance Fibre Channel applications and integrates with VMWare management solutions, check out our recent presentation from IBM SHARE (session 12735) on avoiding the fog and smog that can come with cloud networks.

Late last year, the governor of New York State announced the creation of a new, $3M Center for Cloud Computing and Analytics, based at Marist College. IBM has funded an SDN research lab which is affiliated with this group, and which will also be taking advantage of Marist’s membership in the Internet 2 consortium (regular blog readers will also recall that Marist is the first academic institution to endorse ODIN). While this program is still in its early days, Marist has successfully built an SDN testbed using the Floodlight controller, made contributions to the Floodlight distro, released an open source SDN dashboard tool called Avior, and begun to prototype SDN in a mainframe enterprise environment. The college recently presented a 90 minute, sold-out presentation on their SDN work at the TIP 2013 conference in Hawaii; if you didn’t get a trip to this tropical paradise to hear them, you can still find their presentation and summaries of their recent work.

Did I hear someone ask how Google is using optical
technologies to add value in their data center networks?(yes, I have the technology to hear you
through my blog page, but if I told you how it works I’d have to kill
you).Anyway, some of my colleagues at
Google recently weighed in on this topic for Laser Focus World, and I was
subsequently invited to present a
webinar based on their work (with a few of my own recent accomplishments thrown
in).You might not agree with everything
they have to say (after all, very few of us are running a data center with
Google’s requirements), but it’s always interesting to hear one of the biggest
network operators on the planet talking about optical technology.You can listen to an on-demand playback of my webinar, which cites the original Google article.

Finally, you may have noticed that one of the largest conferences in the field, the Optical Fiber Conference & National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) has invited me to blog about some of the hot topics in the industry leading up to the March 2013 OFC meeting. I’ve been doing this for a few months now, on a wide range of topics including low power optical interconnects, optics for cloud computing and SDN, WAN interconnects, and next generation data centers.

Also, I’ll be doing a live daily blog from OFC starting
March 17, so be sure to check this site for regular updates during the
conference. Or you can stop by &
visit me in person, either during my presentation for the OIDA workshop on
metrics for aggregated networks or my tutorial on optical interconnects for datacom on Tuesday, March 19.I’ll also be stopping by the Elsevier booth
on the trade show floor to check on plans for the fourth edition of my book, the
Handbook of Fiber Optic Data Communication, coming out later this year (but
that’s another blog….)

As I’ve said before, this is a very interesting time to be an optical network engineer. I hope that some of these recent articles appeal to you, and if there’s another topic you’d like to see me cover, drop me a line or send me a tweet (@Dr_Casimer). And if anybody would like to get together at OFC/NFOEC in Anaheim, be sure to let me know!

As the year draws to a close, I predict there will be no shortage of article looking back at 2012 and ahead to 2013. And my humble blog is no exception.

Looking back on 2012, I’ve kept you up to date on the latest networking developments from IBM and the industry. I’ve also recently been blogging about the upcoming OFC/NFOEC conference in March 2013 (where I’m giving a tutorial presentation) on topics including software-defined networking (SDN), energy efficient networking, cloud computing, wavelength multiplexing, 100G networks, and more. And don't miss my latest webinar with Forrester Group on SDN and how it can make a big impact on your plans for next year.

Assuming the ancient Mayans were wrong and the world doesn’t end in 2012, here’s my top 3 predictions to keep in mind for the coming year, counting down in reverse order:

(3) Open standards will be the best way forward for data networking. This past year, the response to IBM’s Open Datacenter Interoperable Network (ODIN) was huge – over 20,000 views in first 2 weeks alone. Look for more industry standards and open source software to make an impact in 2013, including ODIN on steroids and lots more from academic partners like the Marist College SDN/OpenFlow lab.

(2) Data rates will continue to increase. OK, that was an easy one, but it’s happening faster than most people thought…10G links are ubiquitous, 40G links are going mainstream in 2013, and 100G for the data center is right around the corner in 2014.

(1) Network virtualization will be the next big thing. Software-defined networking (SDN) is being deployed by some large users (just ask Google), the OpenFlow 1.3 standard has been released, and overlay networks like DOVE are moving forward in the standards bodies

Looking ahead into the new year, I’ll be bringing you more tweets and blogs on the latest data center networking news, as well as new podcasts and webinars. Maybe I’ll see you at OFC 2013 for my tutorial, and watch for the next edition of my book in 2013. Or, you can catch me at any of the remaining Hudson Valley FIRST Lego League tournaments in January and February; we’ll be sending the Hudson Valley Champion to World Fest this year, and that team will be selected from a field of over 80 teams through six qualifying events held across New York’s Hudson Valley, including Troy, Ballston Spa, Poughkeepsie, LaGrange, Elmsford, and Sleepy Hollow tournaments. And, as always, you can keep the conversation going by commenting on my blog or Twitter. I’d like to wish all my readers a safe, happy, healthy holiday season and a prosperous new year.

I’m pleased to report that Alcatel-Lucent has publicly endorsed the Open Data Center Interoperable Network (ODIN) approach to designing data center networks. As regular readers of my blog know, IBM released a set of technical briefs describing ODIN during the InterOp conference in Las Vegas earlier this year. This approach to using industry standards as the preferred means to designing data center networks has been endorsed in this post from Sam Bucci, a Vice-President at Alcatel-Lucent. Many thanks for this support of open networking standards; I’m sure we’ll have more to say about how to build these solutions with Alcatel-Lucent in the near future.

For those of you who don’t know what SDN and OpenFlow mean, beyond being some of the hottest buzzwords in the networking industry right now, you can check out the appropriate volume of the Open Datacenter Interoperable Network (ODIN) reference architecture for a detailed introduction to this topic and the problems it addresses. For those who just need a quick refresher, software-defined networking is an approach which allows the basic data flows through a switch to be manipulated through an external controller. It’s an industry standard approach being led by the Open Network Foundation (ONF), a consortium run by the world’s largest network users (Google, Facebook, Verizon, and more). OpenFlow is a relatively new industry standard which separates the data plane and control plane of a switch, creating flow table abstractions (in other words, you can match data flows based on content of the packets and perform actions associated with each flow match; if you don’t assign a flow, traffic can be blocked or filtered using this technique). Optimal paths through the network are defined by the OpenFlow controller, rather than some proprietary software within the switch.

One of the potential benefits of OpenFlow is that it allows you to innovate at Internet speeds, by just changing the software and not replacing or reconfiguring the switch hardware. There are still open questions about just how large an OpenFlow controller can scale, how many controllers we need, etc. Marist College has created an SDN lab which will contribute to the OpenFlow community, support research around SDN, and possibly support compliance testing in the near future. They are engaged with some large OpenFlow switch providers (including IBM) and some interested OpenFlow adopters (to be named later) to investigate use cases and performance limitations of the current OpenFlow protocol. Their current lab environment includes four IBM G8264 OpenFlow enabled 10/40G switches in a spine-leaf configuration, running under an open source FloodLight controller. These switches interconnect a server farm based on IBM x86, Power, and System Z enterprise servers. Many of the x86 servers run the VMWare hypervisor and the IBM 5000v virtual switch. The servers are connected via a separate Fibre Channel SAN to various enterprise storage devices.

One of Marist’s early contributions has been to create an open source FloodLight administrative control panel (FACP) that can be used for network administration. The FACP eliminates the need to write Python script to control the switches, thereby reducing management complexity. FACP provides an abstraction of the network, and a configuration application can be build against this abstraction. At the conference, Marist held a demo showing how this controller can provision quality of service and routing of Layer 2 & 3 VLANs in the network. Manipulation of firewall ACLs is also possible, and future extensions may include MPLS and other WAN related protocols. Ongoing work in this area is focused on creating a static flow pusher, which will allow a static programmable interface to write scripts which support flow tables across the network using the FloodLight rest API.

Further investigation will include such topics as demonstrating multi-vendor interoperability under a common FloodLight controller, and exploring the limits of scalability and security associated with OpenFlow networking. Keep up with their latest work and see their presentation from the NSF conference .

Want to suggest another TLA (three letter acronym) for my list ? Comment on this blog entry below, or drop me a line on my Twitter feed.